Chaeles vero



(No Model.)

0. VERO.

PROGESS 0F VENBERING HATS. No. 522,539. Patented July 3, 1894.

Tn: nonms PEI'ERS co. wnoTa-u'ruo" WASHINGYON. ay 6 UNITE I. STATES PTENT ()FFICE.

CHARLES, VERO, OF ATHERSTONE, ENGLAND.

PROCESS-"OF VENEERING HATS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 522,539, dated July 3,1894. Application filed January 30. I894. v Serial No. 498,489. (Nospecimens.)

To all whom/it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES VERQ, manufacturer, a subject of the Queenof Great Brit-' ain, residing at Atherstone,v in the county of 5Warwick, England, have invented certain When making hard and soft felthats with a surface of fine for material known as plating or veneeringthere is much difficulty in preventing the inequalities of thebodybeneath appearing through the veneer and if no real felting process isemployed there is difficulty also in causing the veneer to adhere to thebody so firmly as not to be disfigured by pressure and friction intransport orrwear. On the other hand in all measures heretofore taken tofelt the fur veneer firmly in earlier stages to the body have caused thefiner material to penetrate into the substance of the body in place ofremaining upon the surface.

I make a hat body in the usual way either from wool or from fur or froma mixture of the two. It is made in the ordinary conical or sugarloaf-form; it is felted and it is stifiened as required with proofing. Isubmit this hat body to heavy pressure in the machine well known as ahatters hydraulic press, which consists of a metal mold of the sameconical shape as the hat body and a flexible watertight bag to theinterior of which water under pressure can be admitted. The hat i bodybeing heated to soften-the proof is placed 7 35 in the mold, the bag isinserted within it and secured by placing the cover on the mold; finallythe waterunder pressure is admitted to the bag. The pressure is appliedto the body within the mold inthe usual way. I then after removing thehat body from the mold dress the surface of the hat body with glasspaper'so as to remove all irregularities, coarse harls, kemps and burrsto obtain as fine a face as possible. I next proceed to plate orvveneerthe hat body with short or powdered fur. I use the fur of hares, rabbitsor other animals cnt very short or reduced by grind ing in a machine toa short staple.

The plating operation is best conducted by placing the hat body 'in acylindrical chamber of wood or metal the walls of which are lined withfustian or such like fabric, of fiber which will not felt. The cylinderlined with fustian cloth is constructed between two simi-' lar disks ofwood or metal also lined with fustian and each. about four feet indiameter; these disks form ends to the cylinder, they are fixed on ahorizontal axis at about five feet apart. The cloth lining is supportedbetween the disks by wooden bars extending from disk to disk parallel tothe axis. These bars are covered and padded with fustian.

The hat bodies are prepared each with a string across the base toprevent them entering one into the other during their revolving. In thisstate the bodies about twelve at a time, are placed in the cylindertogether with a sufficientquantity of short or powdered fur.

There is a fustian door about one foot deep across from disk to diskalso lined .by which the hat bodies are put inand taken out from thecylinder. The cylinder is turned slowly by manual labor or by means of adriving belt passing around a pulley on its axis. A speed of twentyrevolutions per minute will be found suitable and in about fifteenminutes the plating operation will be complete. Around the axis andwithin the chamber I providea oasing about twelve inches in diameterwhich is To this casing I .can admit steam as the plating operationproalso covered with fustian.

ceeds better and quicker when the hat bodies and the short or powderedfur are warm; but

the heat employed must not be sufficient to soften the proofing andrender the hat bodies so limp as .to cause them to wrinkle or to losetheir shape.

' In order to keep the hat bodies for semihard or soft hats in formwhile in the plating cylinder it is advisable that they should bestretched over and fastened on light frames 1 of wire work or strongproofed bodies.

The rotation in the cylinder causes the plating to be even over thesurface of the bodies.

At the, end of the plating operation the hat bodies are removed from theplating cylinder and the superfluous short fur is shaken 0%, but asufficient quantity is firmly attached to form a good veneer. In orderto felt this veneer to the hat body without however causing it topenetrate beneath the surface I make use of the apparatus well known tohatters as the cup and cone hardener, it consists of a hollow coppercone of the form of the hat too body, it is finely perforated all overand steam is admitted to its interior; it is covered with a felt jacketand around this a cloth is wrapped. Over the cone thus padded on the 5surface the hat body with the veneer upon it is placed. Another metalcone as a cover descends on and over the hat body but with a soft clothbetween the two. The top cone does not fit tightly and it receives fromthe mechanism a short but quick jiggering movement. After treatment inthis well known machine for about one or two minutes the veneer will befelted and properly fixed on the body. By repeating the operations thehat body may be doubly or trebly veneered or plated if desired. Thebodies are then piled in piles of two or three dozen and placed in asteam chest and subjected to steam under pressure for one or two hours.In addition to vencering soft hats I further harden them on a flathardener as is well understood. I also sometimes give them one or morerounds by hand or in a planking machine.

The finishing operations are of the ordinary 2 5 description.

The annexed drawings show the plating cylinder.

Figure l is a longitudinal section and Fig. 2 is a transverse section.

a is the axis, a a belt pulley upon it.

b b are the disks fixed upon the axis.

12' is a door.

0 c are the padded bars parallel to the axis connecting the disks.

(1 dare the walls of the cylinder covered with fustian or like fabric.

6 is the steam casing around the axis covered with fustian and e is apipe by which steam is supplied to it.

What I claim is- 1. The process of veneering hard or soft felt hatbodies with short or powdered fur which consists in consolidating bypressure the felted hat body while it retains its conical form, thencutting the face of the hat body to a fine surface, then covering orplating the hat body with finely divided fur and afterward felting thehat body and the fur together in the presence of steam substantially asdescribed.

2. The process of veneering hard or soft felt hat bodies with short, orpowdered fur which consists in consolidating the felted hat body bypressure while it retains its conical form, then cutting the face of thehat body to a fine surface, then rolling the hat bodies in powdered furWhile avoiding contact with any hard surface, and afterward firmlyfelting the hat body and the fur together substantially as described.

3. The process of veneering hard or soft felt hat bodies with short orpowdered fur which consists in consolidating the felted hat body bypressure while it retains its conical form, then cutting the face of thehat body to a fine surface, then covering or plating the hat body withfinely divided fur, then felting the hat body and the fur together, thenagain covering or plating the hat body with fur and finally againfelting the hat body and the fur together substantially as described.

4. The process of veneering hard or soft felt hat bodies, with short orpowdered for which consists in consolidating the felted hat body Whileit retains its conical form, then cutting the face of the hat body to afine surface, then covering or plating the hat body with finely dividedfur, then felting the hat body and the fur together, then piling the hatbodies one on another and steaming them, substantially as described.

CHARLES VERO.

Witnesses:

HUME O. PINSENT, Biwningham, Notary Public.

JAMES STOBIE, 637 Ilfurdock Road, Ifanclsworfh, Birming' lam.

